GMOs Our vision is of European food and farming free from GM crops and corporate control

The EU's top court ruled today that a controversial new generation of food genetic engineering techniques should be subject to EU safety checks and consumer labelling.

In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Justice confirmed that new techniques to modify genetic material in plant or animal cells – so called 'GMO 2.0' – must undergo the same safety checks for their impacts on the environment and human health as existing genetically modified foods (GMOs).

For more than 20 years, civil society, farmers, politicians and the food sector have successfully fought for GMO-free fields and the right to choose food without GM ingredients in Europe.

But this could be about to change. On July 25, the EU's top court will rule whether new genetically modified (GM) seeds and foods – so-called 'GMO 2.0' – should be subject to safety checks under EU law.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) today gave the first indication of how it will classify foods and crops derived from new genetic engineering techniques.

The opinion issued by one of the ECJ's Advocates General noted that even if all food and crops derived from new GM techniques were to be considered genetically modified organisms (GMOs), he keeps the door open to some of them not being subject to the same risk assessment, labelling, and monitoring as existing GMOs.

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Genetically modified (GM) crops bring unnecessary risks to both humans and nature. They increase the corporate control of the food chain, whilst placing heavy economic burdens upon conventional and organic food sectors aiming to avoid contamination.

Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns for food and farming free from GM crops. We push for solutions that provide livelihoods and healthy food for people, protect our biodiversity, and don't pollute the environment. We aim to make sure GMOs and big business stay out of our food chain and our fields.